‘Ridiculous!’ Senator Fumes After Visiting USAID’s Offices and Learning Employees Are ‘Illegally’ Being Refused Entry

Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) spoke to reporters outside of USAID’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. following Elon Musk’s unilateral moves to shut down the decades-old humanitarian agency.

“I’m Senator Andy Kim from New Jersey about 20 years ago, when I first came to work for the federal government, I walked through these doors right behind me. I started off my career in public service at USAID,” Kim began, sharing his personal history with the agency, adding:

And I just have to say how proud I was to be able to serve the country, how proud I was to work for USAID, to be part of the foreign policy of this country. And I have to tell you, it was really tough today walking through these same doors 20-some years later, only to see it shut down to employees.

And I got all weekend long, I was getting calls and phone calls from people that I worked with at USAID before. People that are there now, people who have been disrespected by this administration that pushes them to the side, basically calls into criminals and tells them not to show up to work. And so I thought once I tried to speak to the acting administrator, Gray, unfortunately, I was not able to meet with him.

And I’m going to continue to try today to be able to meet with the acting administrator, because I want to hear straight from him. Are these the orders that he gave. You know, you have mysterious people within this new administration sending out emails across the entirety of USAID telling them not to show up. I talked to this guy. I talked to the security guard. I talked to the security guard just in there.

He said he has been given specific orders to prevent employees of USAID from entering the building today. And I just find that to be absolutely ridiculous! You know, this is no way to govern. This is no way to treat public servants. And this is no way for us to conduct our foreign policy as a country. So I had to show up today, see it with my own eyes, you know, the chaos of this administration and just their attacks upon public servants in our country is.

Over the weekend Musk’s operatives forced out key USAID officials who refused to hand over what they said were classified documents. The AP reported that “Musk’s DOGE crew lacked high enough security clearance to access that information, so the two USAID security officials — John Voorhees and deputy Brian McGill — believed themselves legally obligated to deny access.”

After the incident, Musk’s team of twenty-somethings moved to shut the humanitarian aid program’s offices and sent out an email on Sunday evening telling employees not to return to work.

A reporter then asked Kim if Congress is “planning to take any action?”

“Well, I certainly hope Congress takes action because what is happening here is illegal. It is unacceptable to have a president try, through executive power, be able to reorganize or remove USAID. This is an entity that was created through federal statute, codified through federal statute, and something that cannot be changed, cannot be removed except through actions of Congress,” Kim replied, adding:

So the idea that they are moving forward in this way without any notification to us about trying to change federal statute, you know, just shows how much of a power grab this is.

So, yes, I do hope that Congress I certainly want to go back to the Capitol today, engage with my colleagues and see what actions we can take to try to stand up for the American people, stand up for our laws.

“What do you say to those employees who were escorted out? And we even heard from some of them that they are worried about the repercussions this could have worldwide,” added another report.

“Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I tell the staff of the USAID I’m sorry for what’s happening to them. I’m sorry, from the bottom of my heart,” Kim replied, adding:

As someone who was so proud to work at USAID, my very first job in the federal government was right here at USAID. And the fact that these employees are being demonized, you know, the fact that they’re being called you know, currently it’s a criminal organization from Elon Musk.

You know, the fact that they’re being told not to show up, that the federal aid is being frozen, I mean, it’s just such disrespect. They deserve better. They are public servants. They swear an oath to serve this country. And right now they are being treated as if they’re the criminals.

Watch the clip above via C-SPAN.